


Memories of History

by night9uake



Series: Ace!Nicky [3]
Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Ace!Nicky, Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, Crusades, Crusades Era Joe | Yusuf al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Enemies to Lovers, First Times, M/M, Medieval, Memories, Pre-Canon, Slow Burn, Sort Of, as usual, both heavenly and literal references, but more then 5, flowery writing, lot of reference to the sky, mention of the fall of Jerusalem, no beta we die like men, no sexual, soft and sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:29:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26378839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/night9uake/pseuds/night9uake
Summary: Seeing each other drenched in crimson, their swords not far from where they had laid. The terror of remembering what had happen, what seemed to be merely few minutes ago, where now hours in the past.Or: Yusuf thinks back to some of their first times.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Ace!Nicky [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1900276
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	Memories of History

**Author's Note:**

> TW: mention of death but they will come back alive.

The dark haired man felt Nicolo’s skin against his own. Yusuf’s breathing was heavy as he leaned closer, resting his head upon the fair haired man’s shoulder. Nicolo cradle his head softly and hummed an ancient lullaby, a song neither of the men had sung in ages. Shivers travelled down the brown eyed man’s spine, memories flooded back of a past when last hearing the lullaby.

Yusuf remembered the charcoal veined indigo gracing the morning sky. The view of the fallen city before them, the smell of _death_ filling the air with its distaste. But no thing was as _clear_ inside of his mind as seeing the kneeling man, his hands gently placed on broad sword as he prayed. The faint words escaping his thin lips wasn’t one of a prayer, it was the same soft lullaby leaving the same man’s lips now.  
“I remember that morning, when you first sang…” The dark haired man whispered, making Nicolo stop and tilt his dearest head up. Their eyes meeting, like the waves of the ocean colliding with the shore.  
“The first morning neither of us killed one another.” A faint smiled formed on the fair haired man’s lips, before he continued to hum the same soft melody.  
“It was your mother who thought you?” Yusuf questioned, hoping the love of his life wouldn’t mind speaking about memories of loved ones, whom had been gone for decades. So far away still it felt it was only yesterday, that the battle of Jerusalem had started. The dark haired man was both puzzled and frightened over how the passing of decades could have moved swiftly, hardly gracing by their attention. Yet so many years with unnecessary problems. Years spent despising each other, and not wanting to realize that they where more alike than they had thought. That they where more connected on a deeper emotional level than either of them would have wanted to admit.  
“Yes, she used to sing it while painting,” a soft smile formed on his lips, again, but his beautiful green eyes started to glisten in the fire. Its glow illuminated both of the men with its warm light, it was only them under the night sky, seeing the same stars as the first night they met.

The same crystal clear and vibrant night heaven, blessing the holy city with its luminous shine. In distant two men gasping back to life, only a few feet apart and the night as their only comfort. The fighting had stoped hours ago, and the adrenaline still burned inside of them. The will, the _need_ to kill the other man rose when their eyes meet. Seeing each other drenched in crimson, their swords not far from where they had laid. The terror of remembering what had happen, what seemed to be merely few minutes ago, where now hours in the past. To feel his own sword puncture into the soft and warm flesh of the demon before himself while moments later feeling his own body and soul being torn apart from the same man by _his_ sword. The men had never felt more alone and afraid in their lives, yet right before themselves stood a man with the exact same fear, painted across his face. His eyes filled with the terror the other was feeling deep down inside of himself. Both of the men needed to kill the other. To prove to his own god, and thank the heavens for their blessing to rise once more, to slay the demon. But they kept waking up, and they kept killing each other. Trying to use the blessing and serve with purpose, as this could be the only logical reasons for why they would rise after each deadly wound. Each of the men thought that they where a solider of god. Both of the mens amour did no longer any good, it where in more pieces than the man himself, especially as it seemed the smallest of scratches would heal over and be forgotten into oblivion, alike it had never existed before. It was a better offer to fight without and to only hope when they took their last breath the other shall come along into _death_.

Yusuf remembers the waves of the ocean, seeing how beautiful the waters color matched Nicolo’s eyes. How at peace he looked while gazing out over the horizon and the open sea. His eyes almost seemed to be filled with hope but they quickly shifted with something else when their eyes meet. It where _as if_ the guilt of slaughtering each other, time over time still hunted his light green eyes. The memories of what to become their first death still vivid in both of the men’s minds. But the fair haired man tried to smile, to shy away the guilt boiling inside of himself before turning his gaze back out to the ocean. The dark haired man’s fingers gently scratched against the wooden rail, his fingers tempted to draw the beautiful creature before him. Yusuf felt like he couldn’t pursue such cravings, _not yet_. But inside of his mind he had already pictured what a master piece it would become if he was able to sketch the exquisite jaw, the nose and that mole placed so perfectly upon Nicolo’s face.

“Is this the first time you have told me that your mother was an artist?” The brown eyed man’s tone of voice was playful, though his eyes kind and filled with nothing but love. “Is this why you seem to be a creation only able to be sculptured from angels?” The dark haired man winked, only earning a chuckle from Nicolo. A laughter so sweet as the the first time he had heard it.

The sun had been blazing on the men for ages, what felt to be days could have easily been weeks walking in the dry sand. With nothing to eat or see before them, only sand dunes and rocks. They both died every now and then from thirst, then quickly gasping back to life in almost perfect condition. This dreadful walk across the desert seemed to be even more hell like, than the fall of the sieged city. Even the vultures was far in between, nothing lived out here and yet these two men where walking in the middle of it. They tried to keep themselves sane with small chatter, though they didn’t really have the strength or the language for much, it still gave them something to look forward. When one of them perished and the other man was still alive, waiting under the heat of the sun for him to wake up. Nicolo’s laughter had been the best sound Yusuf had heard with ease in months, maybe even years. It was a sound he didn’t know he had craved until he had heard it. The smile that followed was a sweet and beautiful.

The way their swords glisten in the rays of the sun, becoming weaker by each hour as it started to slowly set and leave the men exposed to the cold night. The day and night where as different and alike as the men. Two sides of the same coin, _two halves carved out of the same soul_. The men had learnt more about each other during the cold nights while sitting under comfort of a fire, then walking under the blazing sun through sand.

The way Nicolo’s slender waist had felt for the first time underneath Yusuf’s arms, was a comfort alike nothing he had experienced. To trust a man, he had once hated with everything from his soul. Was now sleeping peacefully within the dark haired man’s arms, Nicolo’s back pressed tightly against his chest. Their heart beats in sync as they slept under the celestial lights.

The green eyed man’s lips pressed softly against the dark haired man’s, a touch hardly felt yet it was the strongest and the warmest touch either of them had felt. Nicolo’s chapped, dry lips burned more the heat from the sun. The look on the fair haired man’s face when they pulled apart was filled with embarrassment. His cheeks rosier then the reddest rose, but Yusuf’s cheeks was the exact same. The bashfulness inside of their eyes soon switched to lust and passion, as they leaned in for another unchaste kiss. The same passion they felt during their first kiss, was still very much alive all these decades later. Bashfulness no longer filled their kisses, they where soft and filled with a passion not even the heavens could contain.

“Only you my love, are able to form such delicate words.” The soft smile, Nicolo’s eyes filling with a kindness the world is not worthy upon. Yusuf felt how his chest filled with love for the other man, a love which he can not even begin to describe.

_This man is his everything, all and more._

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully you'll enjoyed this, and it wasn't too weird to read.


End file.
